They Meddle with Love Rewrite
by wyomingparmesan
Summary: A rewrite of my latest one shot "They Meddle with Love", where Lincoln learns that sometimes, it's okay to not be so strong all the time, and that sometimes, having meddling sisters isn't so bad. One Shot. Lots of Fluff.


**A/N:** **So ya'll might remember I posted this fic last week. About Lincoln learning that it's ok to not be strong all the time, and that his sisters always mean well? Yep, this is the same thing, except it's not. I decided to rewrite it after getting some advice on how I could make it better. Thank you to user** **rctperson85 for giving me the wonderful advice that inspired me to rewrite this story.** **Enough of my babbling, on with the story!**

It was your typical day in the Loud house. All of the older children were arriving home from school. A few of the sisters were sitting on the couch watching TV, and having small conversations amongst themselves.

Suddenly, the front door bursts open, and in walks Lincoln Loud, the only boy of the family. Usually he comes home from school with a big smile on his face. Today, however, he looked like he had been kicked one too many times.

His sisters took notice of this.

"Hey little bro", Luna said as she stared at her brother. "Are you alright?"

Lincoln didn't look at her. "Yeah, I'm fine", he mumbled, then immediately went upstairs.

Luna watched as Lincoln ran angrily up the stairs. " _That's so unlike him_ ", she thought to herself. It actually hurt her to see him like that. She barely ever saw him as anything other than happy. He usually only got angry when she and her sisters made him mad. " _I wonder if I should go check on him_ ".

"That was strange", said Lynn as she was balancing a soccer ball on her head. " _Lincoln? Upset? Those two words shouldn't even be in the same sentence_ ", Lynn thought to herself. Lynn saw Lincoln as someone who was very optimistic. He knew how to make any situation good, no matter the circumstance. Seeing him so upset, over something that neither she nor her sisters caused, was very unnerving for the teenager. " _Maybe I'll go check up on him later. I think I left one of my socks in there anyway_ ".

"He must be having one of those like, swing set thingy's", Leni said. " _Aw, poor Linky. Maybe I'll make him some soup later, and some of those dinosaur chicken nuggets he likes_ ", Leni thought to herself, as she wrote that down on her hand for later. Leni is one of the sweetest Louds, and just like Lincoln, was always willing to help cheer up her siblings when they were having a hard time. She knew what they all liked, especially Lincoln, although it's been a while since she had to bring out those dinosaur nuggets.

Her sisters stared at her, confused.

"I believe the term you are looking for is a "mood swing"", Lisa informed her. " _It seems that the single male sibling is going through a series of rapidly changing emotions, street name, a mood swing_ ", she said into her tape recorder. " _Although, he is a bit young to be starting what many call "teen angst". Perhaps he just had a bad day at the house of learning_ ".

"Oh, right", Leni said. "I knew that".

Back upstairs, Lincoln headed to his room, but not before being stopped by a couple of sisters.

"Hey Lincoln!", Lana yelled as she ran up to him. "Can you come and help me put the new tire on Lola's car? I just need someone to hold my tools".

Lincoln sighed. "I would love to, Lana, but I just have so much homework to do".

Lana looked at him with a sad expression. "Oh, okay", she said as she headed back to her and Lola's room. "A _w that's too bad. I love it when Lincoln helps me with the car_ ", Lana thought as she sat down to begin working on Lola's car. " _But I guess he's just not feeling it today. Maybe I'll go and make him a mud pie when I get done with this, he always likes to tell me if they're good or not_ ".

"Hey Lincoln", Lucy said as she snuck up behind him.

"Aaa!", Lincoln screamed when he saw her pop up out of nowhere. "What do you want?"

"I need help with a poem. It's for the poetry contest at school", she said.

Lincoln sighed again. "I'm sorry, Luce, but I really do have so much stuff to do", he said.

"Sigh", Lucy said, as she stared heading to her room. "Hmm, Lincoln is acting strange today, isn't he?", Lucy said to Edwin. Unlike her sisters, Lucy preferred to say her thoughts and feelings out loud, especially to her vampire bust, Edwin. Although she was already perplexed by her siblings' abilities to show so many emotions, she couldn't help but feel as though something was off with her brother. It wasn't very often she saw him angry, but when she saw him, he looked didn't even really look angry. He looked more sad, embarrassed. It was something she hadn't seen on his face in a long time.

Finally, Lincoln was able to enter his room. He hated lying to his sisters, because he really loved helping them, but he was just not in the mood for it right now. He sat on his bed and laid his back on the headboard and sighed.

"Ugh, why do I always mess everything up?", Lincoln said to himself. He looked over and saw his stuffed bunny, Bun Bun. He picked it up and hugged it tight. "At least you're here, buddy. My sisters wouldn't understand if they found out. They would just make fun of me even more".

Lincoln could already feel the tears starting to well up in his eyes. It wasn't very often when Lincoln cried over something that wasn't a sad movie, or seeing his sisters achieve something they had been aiming for. Those were proud brother tears. These tears, well, these were the tears of a boy who had had a bad day at school, and was too embarrassed to talk about it.

He could hear the sounds of footsteps coming and going as his sisters went about their everyday activities. He loved to lay there and listen to the faint sounds of their voices as they had intermingling conversations with one another. He felt bad for turning down Lana's need for assistance, and Lucy's as well, but he knew that he couldn't be near any of his sisters for long without bursting into tears. He yearned so badly for a hug from one of them. To feel their soft, warm body as he nestled his head into their shoulder, or if it was a little sister, to feel their head nestled into his shoulder. Hugs from his sisters were the best.

Lincoln finally succumb to his sadness, and let a few streams of tears fall down his face. He cried quietly amongst himself, as he knew his sisters would come running if they heard his sobs. The boy felt as though he had been run over by a truck. He hadn't been this sad since he saw the last Ace Savvy Movie, when One-Eyed Jack almost sacrificed himself. He and Clyde had a good sob fest after that one. There was something about crying in front of his sisters though, that made him feel so weak, so small. As if he was a small child again.

He remembered a few times when he was little, and he cried because he fell on the playground, or because he broke his favorite toy. One of his sisters would always come and help him take the pain away. Thinking back on those tender times made him smile a little.

After drowning in his sorrows, it was dinner time. Lincoln wiped his face to make sure there was no evidence of his little episode, and made his way down to the kitchen like normal, trying to not let his mood show through. He bumped into Luna in the hallway.

"Hey Linc!", she said. "It looks like you've peeked up a bit".

Lincoln gave her a fake smile. "Yep I'm all good now".

She reached over and ruffled his hair. "Now that's more like it!", she said. "Now let's go chow down, I'm starved".

They headed down to the dining room with the rest of their siblings. Since Lincoln was the last one to come down, he had to sit next to Lily's high chair.

"Ink-in!", the baby exclaimed when she saw her older brother sit down next to her.

He couldn't help but give her a small smile. "Hi Lily", he said.

To the other side of him was Lori, who he didn't mind, but she almost always gave him a constant stink eye.

"So, Lincoln", she began as she picked up a French fry and swirled it around in some ketchup. "Did you have any problems at school today? The other girls said you came home and were literally pissed".

Lincoln started to get angry again. The whole family was staring at him. It was almost unavoidable now, but he still refused to talk about it.

"Nothing", he said. "Nothing happened".

This wasn't enough for his oldest sister apparently, as she kept patronizing him. "Hmm of course there wasn't".

Lincoln began to get up from the table. "Mom, Dad, may I please be excused?"

"Sure, son but you haven't even-", Lynn Sr. started, but was cut off by the sound of a door slamming shut. "Touched your dinner".

"Look at what you did, Lori", Leni said. "You made Lincoln upset".

"No, I didn't", Lori told her. "He's been like this all day".

Lori and Lincoln didn't have the best relationship out of the siblings, most of the time she saw him as a mere pest. Although, at times like this, she couldn't help but feel worried for her baby brother. " _I guess I can go check on the little twerp after dinner_ ", she thought to herself. "I _'ll even apologize too. He literally seems to have had to put up with enough stuff today_ ".

"Maybe we should all go check on him", said Luan. "After dinner of course". Luan had been one of the fortunate ones that didn't run into Lincoln when he had his little outburst earlier. She couldn't help, but stare sadly at her other sisters. She loved nothing more than to see her little brother smile.

As soon as dinner was finished, and all of the dishes were washed, all ten girls headed upstairs to their only brother's room.

Inside, Lincoln was trying his best to calm down. He could still feel the stinging sensation behind his eyes, but desperately tried to suppress it.

"It's okay, Lincoln", he said to himself. "You'll forget it by tomorrow. Just gotta get through the rest of the day without your sisters finding out".

He felt the need to relieve himself, so he headed towards his door, cracking it slightly to make sure there were no meddling sisters around. There were none that he could see, so he opened up his door, only to reveal the ten-headed beast standing right there in front of him.

"Dang it", Lincoln whispered to himself.

He was far too used to his sisters doing this. They always knew when something wasn't right with him, even if he tried to suppress it.

This time was different though. They didn't look angry, they looked concerned.

Before he could speak, one of his sisters spoke up. "The jig is up Lincoln", Lola said, but not with her usual smirk. Her face was much softer. "We know that something happened at school today, and you're going to tell us exactly what". Lola wasn't the nicest of the ten sisters, but that didn't mean that she didn't care about her other siblings, especially her older brother. She was upset that he didn't come to her tea party earlier though, and she wanted to know why.

Lori stepped up and pushed Lola back a bit. "What Lola means is, we know that you've literally had a rough day, and we wanna help", she said.

The rest of the girls nodded.

"I appreciate it guys, but I'm fine", he reassured them. "I promise".

"I don't believe you", Lynn said as she stepped up and stood in front of him. "I know when something has happened to you, and something definitely has. Now who do I have to beat up this time?"

"Lynn, back off a bit, okay?", Luna told her.

Lynn went back to her original spot. Now it was time for a softer approach. Leni went and stood in front of Lincoln, this time getting down on one knee so that they were eye level.

"Hey Linky, I know that you're not feeling that good today, and if you ever want to talk about it, we're here for you, okay?", Leni said in her soft voice, as she picked up one of his hands and softly stroked it.

Many "Yeahs" and "Yes's" could be heard from the group of girls.

It wasn't long before the boy realized that he just couldn't hold it in anymore. He could feel the corners of his eyes starting to itch. He took his hand back and turned away from his sisters. He hated crying in front of them. Any of them, but especially all ten of them.

He felt so embarrassed as he felt the first stream of tears come down his cheeks. He couldn't see them, but his sisters were all looking at him, in a way that only sisters who care about their brother can.

Lily couldn't stand to see her big brother like this, so she escaped from Luan's arms and crawled towards Lincoln. Lily might only be a baby, but she has a great understanding of people, especially her family. She always knew when someone was sad, and always wanted to help in whatever way she can.

She crawled over to him and began tugging on his pants. "Poo poo?", Lily said as she looked up at her brother.

Lincoln turned around and saw little Lily, sitting there looking at him. He didn't speak, just simply picked her up and held her in his arms.

Lily noticed the tears on his face and began to wipe them off. "Ink-in sad", she babbled.

He finally gained enough strength to speak. "I-I'm so s-sorry guys", he stuttered while trying not to go into full on sob mode.

"Don't apologize, Lincoln", Luan said reassuringly. "There's nothing wrong with being sad".

"I-it's just that I-I don't like people seeing me c-cry", he said. "It's s-so embarrassing".

Oh, Lincoln", Lori said as she stood in front of her little brother. "Don't ever be afraid to show how you truly feel".

"Yeah, dude", Luna said. "We've all felt really terrible at some point".

The others all nodded in agreement.

"B-but it m-makes me feel s-so weak, and I-I always n-need to be strong", Lincoln said between sobs. "F-for you g-guys".

He could see the concerned looks on his sister's faces.

"There's no need to be strong for us, elder brother", Lisa said. "You have every right to show emotions as we do, although I do not believe in it myself".

"Yeah, Lincoln", Lana said in a small voice. "You can cry too if you feel sad. I do it all the time".

"We'll never judge you for crying in front of us, you hear me?", Lori said. "You might think that we're literally only here to butt into your life, but we literally care about you, so much. Don't ever think that we don't".

Leni came up again. "You don't have to tell us what happened, just know that we're here for you okay?", she said in the most soft, sweet voice that she could.

Lincoln nodded, and one by one, his sisters all came up and gave him a hug. He loved when they did this. Just one big pile of hugs.

Some of them even shed some tears as they all just stood there for a bit. Lincoln even felt Lily give him a kiss on the cheek.

With eleven children in the house, there's always plenty of love to go around. And at that moment, Lincoln felt especially loved. His sisters may love to butt into his life, but they do it with good reason.

"I love you guys so much", Lincoln said. "More than you'll ever know".

That was followed by nine "I love you more's" and one "poo poo".

Yeah, there's plenty of love in the Loud house.

 **A/N: Please let me know what you think, and if you liked this one better than the original. I know I do.**


End file.
